Alto - ICE Upgrade with DLS, Kenwood, Blaupunkt. Updated pics on pg 3

This is a discussion on Alto - ICE Upgrade with DLS, Kenwood, Blaupunkt. Updated pics on pg 3 within In-Car Entertainment, part of the Under the Hood category; My Alto's ICE went through a complete overhaul last Sunday.
Amp - I had a chance to audition the Kenwood ...

Amp - I had a chance to audition the Kenwood 8401 and found it be much more warmer and natural sounding than the Kenwood M845. Luckily, I knew a dealer who had a few pieces of 8401 left and bought the amp eyes closed.

Amp Location - The amp was previously placed under the passenger seat which made it tough to access for tuning and other tweaks. The power and speaker cables had also started showing wear and tear due to this. Finding a place to mount the amp was a tricky one as Alto's rear seat no longer has metal sheets and contains just a few metal wires with foam pads stuffed inside. After taking a few measurements, decided that the best position to mount it would be rear-coaxial speaker box.

Wiring Kit - The fake JBL wiring kit had nothing left in it. So, the next part was sourcing a decent wiring kit. Though of getting 4AWG initially but it would have been an overkill considering I listen at moderate volumes. Finally went ahead with the Bull Audio 7AWG wiring kit. The difference in wire quality was huge.

Speaker Wire - The change in amp location meant that I needed to upgrade speaker wires as well. Initial choice was the 16AWG Kicker speaker cable but every distributor I tried gave the same answer, "out-of-stock". In one of my visits to Pro-Audio shops in Chandigarh, I chanced upon Draka ProLink 16AWG speaker wire. The build quality was mind blowing. The wire had thick copper strands surrounded by PVC and yet the wire was flexible! At 100 bucks a metre, it was a steal!

Head Unit - The sweetest part of the Upgrade, the Kenwood x794. I had auditioned the X693 and totally loved the neutral warm sound of the HU and the iPod integration it offered. When I found that Kenwood had just released it's successor with updates and a sleek new remote, I knew I had to go for it. A nice eBay discount made the decision even more prompt. To say it's a mighty upgrade from the Kenwood 5539 would be a huge understatement. x794 is loaded with features, and apart from great natural sound out-of-the-box offers great USB and iPod integration.

Installation - With all the equipment in place, it was time for installation. This time, I decided that the install has to be done by none but the best in town. Fixed an appointment on Sunday and the install started at 6:30 AM. Witnessing a Sunday morning sunrise is a rare thing for us Software Engineers.
I couldn't help but smile and appreciate the effort the installer put in. Each and every thing was done with amazing detail and precision. Using heat-shrinkable sleeves, proper terminals for EVERY connection... and so on. In the end, at 7:00PM, when we turned the system ON, it was pure Nirvana!

Many thanks to all Chd-bhpians and specially abhibh for the guidance!

Here are a few pics of the finished install.

The Kenwood 8401. Everything hooked up properly using fork terminals and heat-shrinkable sleeves. I love the neat finish.

But I felt the Amp noise(humming probably from the fans) is a tad more than the JBLs..what is your experience ? I hear the noise very clearly when the cabin is completely silent and it sits under the passenger seat.

@s3va
That's correct bro. The cooling fan on the amp does have a sound noticeable only when the cabin is dead-silent. Wasn't a distraction anyways but now that the amp is mounted in the boot makes it hardly audible.